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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28495965">Cinderella</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacsandlavender/pseuds/lilacsandlavender'>lilacsandlavender</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bates Motel (2013)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff, best normero scene yup yup we been knew, the way I've been dying to write this but it was never the right time</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:21:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,868</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28495965</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacsandlavender/pseuds/lilacsandlavender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Straight from the ending scene from season four's episode, The Vault, this is a take on the many thoughts with one feeling Norma experienced as she wondered how Chick's threat would affect her relationship with Alex.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Norma Bates/Alex Romero</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Cinderella</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I just had to start the new year off with a happy Normero fic while also taking a quick break from writing angst for a minute, and this was the finished product. Hope you like it :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Norma doesn’t even hear Alex come in.</p><p>It’s exactly 6:00, around the time the sheriff usually leaves work, so today he must have gotten off early. Though the drive from the police station to the motel on the freeway is relatively short, making his arrival time to the house nearly identical from day to day, Norma is still caught-off-guard, and she can’t blame preparing dinner as an excuse. No, dinner has been ready fifteen minutes ago, eagerly and hastily made in her futile attempt to busy her mind from her earlier encounter with that horrible man, Chick. The plates of pasta currently sit in the oven to stay warm, and Norma has been anxiously pacing the kitchen, almost to the point of worrying the linoleum.</p><p>“Oh, hey,” Alex says casually as he slips noiselessly into the kitchen and starts to take his coat off.</p><p><em>Damn that brown leather coat he wears like a second skin</em>, Norma thinks. <em>I’m going to miss seeing him every day in it.</em></p><p>“Hi,” she replies back, not trusting herself to say anything more than a simple greeting. She curses herself because it comes out sounding hesitant anyways, and she’s sure that as a cop, Alex can pick up on those sorts of things. Or maybe he’s just been around her enough to just know when something is off. That idea that someone is in-tune with her makes Norma’s want to smile, but with her impending situation, it only makes her shoulders sag in the smallest way of sadness.</p><p>
  <em>Just act normal. He hasn’t started throwing accusations yet. Maybe you can trick him into thinking that everything’s okay…just like you had to do with Sam for years.</em>
</p><p>Norma places the plates of dinner on opposite sides of the dingy silicone table. “Sit down. Everything’s ready.”</p><p>Something must give her away, because Alex shoots her a quizzical look and asks, “You okay?”</p><p>The statement causes Norma’s heart to pound. She can’t recall the last time anyone had asked if she was okay. It’s always her looking out for others, whether it be Norman or the guests down at the motel, that she’s almost forgotten what it felt like to have someone care about her. If she is honest, close to nobody has cared about her wellbeing her entire life, and she isn’t sure if it’s the sincerity of Alex’s concern or the inevitable reality of said sincerity being ripped away from her at a drop of Chick’s battered hat that makes her feel sorry for herself.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Norma brushes him off, feigning confidence she had not a ounce of in her system. <em>Just keep up the act. Take a seat and have a nice dinner and pour the wine and pray that you’ll be too buzzed to remember the sound of him leaving, whether that be tonight, in the morning, or somewhere in between.</em> “Sit down.”  </p><p>Alex moves to copy Norma’s actions but then stops in the midst of taking off his coat. “Oh, you know what? Chick’s here with the window-”</p><p>
  <em>No. No, no, no. Please no, not now.</em>
</p><p>Alex comments something after that, but after hearing “Chick”, Norma stops listening, the name coming out her husband’s mouth bringing her heart to a halt with the reality that a future without Alex, a future she hasn’t realized means more than she could have ever dreamed, is one that could be happening sooner than later. She’s anticipated Chick’s arrival sometime tonight, but not <em>this</em> early in the evening.</p><p>Parroting the name back, Norma can almost feel the newfound happiness she’s discovered slipping through her fingers while thinking <em>Chick must be pretty pissed at me for yelling at him on the bridge and spared all but a few hours to drive over here and ruin my life.</em></p><p>Norma’s curiosity gets the better of her, for while the anxious part of her begs her to stay in the dark about what Chick has said to Alex, unable to image how badly he’s probably twisted her past – as if there was much that can be said to make it worse – she decides that maybe it hasn’t been <em>horrible</em>, because Alex is still right there in front of her, isn’t he?</p><p>“What did he say?” she blurts out before she can change her mind.</p><p>“He said, ‘I got the window; I could use some help unloading it’,” Alex offers as if she’s odd for thinking any differently. There’s a hint of an amused smile as well that Norma finds slightly confusing, for how Chick hasn’t blabbed her news to Alex upon sight is beyond her.</p><p>She’s relieved, however, and breathes out a small, “Oh”, not bothering to try to distort her emotion as indifference.</p><p>“What’s wrong?”</p><p>This is the second time in under a minute that he’s asked her about her state of mind. As his eyes – those brown eyes she can’t help but notice match his outerwear – search hers, she sees the confusion in them turn into gentle, genuine concern for her, and it’s then she knows what she wants to say.</p><p>Norma honestly isn’t sure when she fell in love with Alex Romero. Was it when she’d heard him agree to come with her to see Bob Paris? Was it when she’d seen him drive up looking incredibly unlike himself in her green Mercedes, or perhaps it was when she’d smelled his aftershave when they’d awkwardly embraced outside her motel? Perhaps it was a time even earlier than all of that, or a time much later, but what makes most sense to Norma is that there was no specific “aha” moment. He’s been so trustworthy and patient and downright <em>sweet</em> (when she <em>and</em> he least expect it) with her that it makes Norma want to whimper with gratefulness that she’s finally found someone who wants to take care of her, for heaven knows every man she’d been with until Alex has used her for their own selfish agendas, but…she also wants to whimper from the distress she feels weighing her down.</p><p><em>Just tell him,</em> the little voice in her head urges her. <em>Tell him how you feel, before he’s gone. Before it’s too late.</em></p><p>But it’s not that easy. Norma’s history of “I love you’s” have baggage associated with them: with Sam, she’d have to say it just right and at least three times in a row to keep him from harming her – or even more importantly, Norman. She’d told her brother that she loved him in the way siblings do, but he’d ended up hurting her too. She’s told her kids as a mom that she loves them, but even that hasn’t been the easiest, for she’s still getting used to telling Dylan it <em>and</em> meaning it. Loving people hasn’t gotten Norma far in life, so here she is in front of Alex, the words caught somewhere among her mind, heart, and vocal cords, begging her for their chance to be verbalized just one more time.</p><p>“I just, um-”</p><p>
  <em>C’mon. You can do it.</em>
</p><p>“I love you.”</p><p>It comes out fast, and while it should feel foreign...it doesn’t. It’s almost like she’s always been meant to say this particular phrase to this particular man.</p><p>“I want you to know that” <em>before I lose you, the only person who’s made me feel safe here.</em></p><p>And for a second the confidence she felt starts to fade when Alex stares back at her, but then the side of his mouth twitches upwards in that signature grin of his, and he’s asking her if she means to tell him right this very second, and then he’s saying <em>“I love you, too”,</em> which makes Norma want to burst into tears with elation. She suppresses her joy at his reciprocation, a pleased smile all she lets slip, but the still, scared part of her is very much alive and well. </p><p>When Alex tells her that he’ll come back from unloading the window, fear grips her once more, telling her that Chick, if he truly hasn’t said anything to him yet, might take the chance to now. Then no, Alex won’t “be right back.” No, there won’t be any more insurance to help keep Norman in Pineview. No, there won’t be any more sleepy morning kisses or not-so-surprising tender touches.</p><p>Because the man who’s given Norma a reason to believe she’s worthy of love will, she thinks, leave her like any respectable person would once they found out what she’s done.</p><p>Then something snaps in her. She’s already in a sensitive mood since Dylan had told her about half an hour ago that he was leaving to live with Emma; for first Norman, then him, and now Alex? Norma feels like she’s losing all the people she’s ever cared about all in one week, but now she pushes her sadness away, suddenly irked beyond comprehension at Chick. <em>How dare he waltz in here and threaten me when all I wanted was my window fixed! No, I’m not going down without a fight, or at least without giving him a good lecture.</em></p><p>So Norma does just that: she walks out to where the two men are standing her new window, snaps at Chick for trying to be smart with his metaphor, and ends up yelling that he’s a “giant, lame asshole” to his face, because at that point, she decides through the future impending pain of Alex leaving, she doesn’t have much to lose. </p><p><em>Me telling a 6’4, scruffy lumberjack of a man off probably won’t even faze Alex when he thinks about me and how I had Dylan. </em>But then Chick doesn’t retaliate, simply wishes that she enjoy the window and kisses her cheek before showing himself out. It’s only then that it occurs to Norma that <em>maybe he didn’t tell Alex, or anyone, actually, about me and the truth that would destroy my marriage</em>, and when Alex demands “what the hell? What was that?”, her guess is confirmed correct as embarrassment fills her. Even worse, she now owes Alex an explanation, and for a second, that age-old fear paralyzes her.</p><p>
  <em>You can lie, you know that, right? Just tell him that it was nothing to be concerned about.</em>
</p><p>Norma knows Alex is too smart to believe that, though, and she can’t come up with anything better on the spot, not when he’s staring so intensely like that. She has to tell him the truth.</p><p>What she wants to say sounds much better in her head than the words that tumble out, and she wants so badly to skip to the part where she’s done saying all this and is alone in her room with that bottle of wine to blur out whatever strangled sound of disgust she’s so sure she’s going to hear from him at any moment. </p><p>But instead, Alex stays silent and waits for her to finish speaking, and while this should be a relief to Norma, she wishes that he’d say something, <em>anything</em>, for because of Sam, she’d used to yelling, used to being disregarded, used to having her guard up whenever speaking. This...this unfamiliar. She can’t say she completely hates it, though. </p><p>By the time she’s run out of things to say, she’s practically crying and upset at herself <em>for </em>crying, because she’s promised herself that she’d keep it together throughout her monologue in the name of sounding sane as possible; but <em>what the hell does it matter now?</em> she asks herself. <em>I’m about to watch the third person who promised me forever walk out those doors, those doors he said just days ago he’d need a key to. </em></p><p>“So....I don’t know. Just go pack your bag.” She can feel the tears coming as she can’t look him in the eye. Because how can she? She’s just told him that she’d willingly slept with her brother. Who in their right mind would stay with someone like that? But she forces herself to glance up by only the sheer will to get his reaction over and done with. She feels her heart steadily starting to tear as she expects to see an expression of horror written all over Alex’s face. </p><p>She thinks, <em>Here I am, standing in front of the one man I love, who truly loves me back, and takes good care of me. The only person I’ve told “I love you” in a long, long time other than my sons. And I’m about to lose him. Damn the past.</em> </p><p>But Alex has a damn-good poker face, and he’s using it now. Norma can’t tell what he’s thinking but hopes his contemplative expression doesn’t indicate that he’s trying to keep from throwing up. <em>Maybe, just maybe, he feels bad enough for me that he’ll stay. </em>Does she want that? A husband who is with her only because he pitied her past? </p><p>“Okay,” he said softly. </p><p>Okay? <em>Okay?! </em>The tear in her heart grows bigger; Norma swears she can hear the ripping. <em>You shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up. Alex is strictly professional in everything he does. He doesn’t let feelings decide his actions. Why would he risk his career, his influential, well-known status, his position of power, all to stay with the messed-up, basket-case of a woman you are who runs a little motel on the side of the road in Nowhere, Oregon? </em></p><p><em>You really dug this marriage its grave with the shovel of your past life, huh?</em> her mind taunts. <em>You just don’t have luck with love, much less marriage. When are you going to finally accept that?</em> </p><p>Her eyes started to fill but she couldn’t stop staring at him, determined to take one last good look - before he trotted up the stairs for his belongings - at the sheriff who’d bailed her and Norman out a thousand times over and the Alex she never thought she’d have to say goodbye to. </p><p>Then it happens. </p><p>His eyes softened and shoulders relaxed. An almost-wishful countenance overcame him and she can't find any traces of regret etched in the handsome wrinkles on his face. Then – “Where are we going?” </p><p>We. We. Alex has said <em>we</em>. It takes Norma a second to process this, since her mind has been so cluttered just a moment ago with self-sabotaging thoughts and reasons for him to leave. For a split second she thinks maybe he hadn’t understood what she meant, but he is still standing there with those compassion-filled eyes, warm and dark as hot chocolate. He isn’t moving towards her yet he isn’t walking away. And as her breathing becomes labored with the realization that Alex doesn’t want to leave her, even after her sickening confession, all she wants to do was hold him tight and never let go. </p><p>She finally lets out that choked sob that’s been building in her throat, but this time, it’s one of relief, not sadness. She extends her arms to embrace him and continues to cry when he not only accepts her but also reciprocates the hug, the feeling of his hand rubbing soothing circles on her back slowly yet surely helping her to calm down. </p><p>After what feels like hours, she finally pulls herself together to coherently speak. “I thought I messed it up,” Norma says and so softly that Alex almost misses it. </p><p>Pulling back from the spot of hair on her head that he’s been tenderly kissing so he can look at her face, he says, “What? Mess what up?” </p><p>“Everything…this, us-” Norma wiggles an arm free from Alex’s comforting embrace so she can motion to their surroundings. “The movie.”</p><p>And for a moment, Alex is confused as to what she means by those last two words, but then the memory of their morning conversation by the second story railing comes back to him, and all he wants to do is hold her tighter than he already is. He murmurs, “You can’t do anything about what happened in the past”, and when Norma starts to say she’s sorry, he quickly tacks on, “-and you have nothing to apologize for.”</p><p>Suddenly Alex is furious with Chick. <em>How dare yet another person use and terrorize Norma when all she wants - all she deserves - is to be happy? </em>he thinks while doing his best to keep from clenching his jaw angrily. <em>If I see that son of a bitch ever again, I’m making him pay for the stress he’s put Norma through. </em>And he’s never been more grateful for his position as sheriff than now, guilty thankful that he can abuse and manipulate it to get away with things the average White Pine Bay citizen can’t, and while he knows it’s morally not right of him to do half the things he’s done, he knows he’ll do them all over again if that’s what it will take to ensure Norma’s safety. </p><p>While Alex knows that Norma is strong, he knows that there are many times when she needs saving. He thinks briefly to what his father told him when he went to visit the state prison - “And you’re Prince Charming?” - and decides that if he can be the one who saves Norma, he will. </p><p>It’s almost as if Norma can read his mind, for her eyes widen and she asks fearfully, “Chick said he’d tell the whole town about my past, so that will affect your job. Isn’t that important? I mean...you did say that you’re an elected official and all...”</p><p>“Oh, pshhh,” Alex replies, and this time it’s his turn to wave dismissively. “If word does spread, so what? Let ‘em talk. I’ll make sure that they know I don’t care and that they shouldn’t either. Yes, my job means something to me, but not as much as you do. You’re much more important.”</p><p>The urge to sob all over again at his words overcomes Norma, but instead she can only offer a tiny smile as he then guides her back to the kitchen. </p><p>“Dinner’s gonna get cold if we don’t eat it, ya know?”</p><p>Norma’s not sure if she has much of an appetite after everything that’s happened, but as Alex continues to discuss why he’s starting to think Chick won’t follow through on his threat, all to alleviate her worries, she’s willing to try to make one part of the night feel normal. Turns out food does appeal, especially since she’s barely eaten all day out of sheer anxiety, but the fear that it all may be too good to be true still lingers in the back of her mind. </p><p>⋆⋆⋆</p><p>The next morning, Norma wakes up slowly, stretches in place, and when it occurs to her that her arm has drifted onto the other side of the bed’s space without running into her husband, her eyes snap open and she glances around frantically while thinking <em>Maybe I dreamt our conversation last night, made something up in foolish wishfulness that everything would be okay. </em></p><p>She glances at the clock on her nightstand, and her heart sinks when the numbers read 6:30, for Alex doesn’t usually leave the house until 7:00 on Fridays. It’s still too early in the morning, too dark out, for her to make out if his things are still in the room. She doesn’t give herself time to flip on the light next to her, instead opting to dash out of the room, paranoia telling her Alex actually didn’t stick around simultaneously haunting her and driving her to search for some clue that he hadn’t moved out. </p><p>So she runs across the second floor now, calling out for him, not caring how terrified she must sound. All she wants is to see him. </p><p>She can’t stand not being able to see him. It’s funny that way: with Sam, she’d crawl into bed each night and pray that he wouldn’t stumble into the room in yet another drunken haze of his, that he’d just fall asleep in the living room armchair so her night wouldn’t end with being coerced into sex. But with Alex, she loves seeing him walk through the door to now <em>their </em>bedroom after taking his turn in the bathroom, loves the sight of him crawl into bed with her, and even only after a week of marriage, after she doesn’t need to see him to get a sense of when he’s tiptoeing around the room in the morning in attempt to not disturb her slumber, and his thoughtfulness in those moments always makes her smile. </p><p>Norma feels Alex before she sees him, for halfway down the stairs she collides into him as he’s jogging up to see what’s wrong. </p><p>“Oh!” she gasps as he grabs her gently yet firmly on both arms to steady her falling self. “Alex, you- I-”</p><p>“What’s the matter?” he immediately asks, and she can tell he’s squinting to search her face in that concerned way he always does. </p><p>Clearing her throat, Norma feels like she’s back in the kitchen, a repeat performance of their interaction from the dining room making an encore appearance, and her heart is hammering. “You’re here,” is all she can gasp out in relief, and if she thought she’d cried out all her tears last night, her eyes are proving her wrong. </p><p>Alex cocks his head and replies, “Of course I am. I just got up early to answer a call for work. I hope it didn’t wake you.” Then it seems to make sense to him, her unexpected shouts for him, the way she’s grasping onto his arms as well, even though he isn’t the one who needed stabilizing, for he then says, “I’m not leaving you, I promise.” </p><p>At that, Norma kisses him, once softly, then again harder, only realizing after that she technically hasn’t answered his question. </p><p>“Sorry to worry you. I just...I dropped the biggest secret of my life on you last night and it’s like I’m still waiting for the other shoe to drop, you know?” She giggles nervously because the words sound stupid to her, but Alex just ruffles her unstyled blonde hair, saying “Well in that case, you’re going to have to wait forever, because it’s not happening”, and the tingling of happiness is back in Norma’s stomach, evicting that previous fear and paranoia from their home in her mind.</p><p>Then he kisses her, and for a moment she wonders if he’s going to kiss her like she has him just moments earlier, but at after pecking her lips he moves to her nose, then cheek, then forehead. Scooping her up, she squeals in surprise as he carries her back to their room, and then he surprises her again when he cuddles next to her in bed, still kissing her spots of exposed skin.</p><p>It shouldn’t mean so much to Norma that he’s deciding to not leave for work early, for Alex is most definitely the kind of man who, when awake early on a weekday, just gets up right away and starts his day, but it does. It means a lot to her that he’s staying here with her, even for just another half hour, and as they make good use of the time they have before his job pulls him away, it seems like he understands that too.</p>
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